


Choice And Conviction

by RobinPlaysTrumpet15



Series: Obi-Wan "The Therapist" Kenobi and How He Changed Everything [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Not Canon Compliant, Obi-Wan will take care of his men, Post-Episode: s04e10 Carnage of Krell, Self-Worth, do not copy to another site, there are no mental health professionals though, what is affectionately referred to as group therapy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:07:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22108321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobinPlaysTrumpet15/pseuds/RobinPlaysTrumpet15
Summary: Obi-Wan implements the new changes the 212th will be going through.Canon DivergenceSet after S4xE10 - The Carnage of Krell
Series: Obi-Wan "The Therapist" Kenobi and How He Changed Everything [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1584874
Comments: 25
Kudos: 1180





	Choice And Conviction

**Author's Note:**

> hey guys! So this took a lot longer to write for exactly one reason: I've been naming companies, platoons, squads, and individual troopers with the 212th Attack Battalion. It is a long and grueling process. I have attempted to use as many canon pieces as i can but it's hard, man, so i'm sure some of this will see out of place and the reason for that is because: it is.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you like this new installment!

The troops are, admittedly, a little taken aback by the new development in this course of events. Mostly, they’d all hoped that after Krell had been dealt with, things might go back to normal. Or… as normal as they could be, seeing as several crimes had been committed. But no one had been found guilty of that and it was ruled that they did what they had to for the betterment of the Republic.

But this? This is not what they had expected.

The entire cruiser is up “bright and early” (according to the clocks). Troopers stare at whatever holoscreen is closest. Even _vode_ in the middle of their sleep cycles because they’re on second or third shift are woken up by their brothers to witness this turn of events.

Every screen displays the same thing: a message about rules from General Kenobi.

There are four of them, and they have almost nothing to do with protocol.

One can almost hear as the entirety of the _Negotiator_ collectively holds their breath for a few chest-aching seconds.

General Obi-Wan Kenobi stands on the bridge of the ship, Commander Cody at his shoulder. They watch as all the troopers around them pause what they’re doing to read the new message as it pops up on nearly every available screen around them. Obi-Wan can only barely hide what might be a smirk that threatens to split his face into a grin. Cody shifts his weight nervously at his side.

It takes less than a minute, then every eye on the bridge is staring at Cody.

The commander had never felt more like he wanted to hide away in a hole than he does right this second. No one says a word. Not Kenobi, not the _vode_ around them, not even the nat-born officers. There is dead silence. You could hear a pin drop.

And at that moment, the rest of the ship erupts into sound. Cody knows that every trooper not currently on active duty (and even some who are, surely) are rushing between each other. They have to know if this is a joke, if this is serious. Because what this looks like is that they’re going to be treated as people - _real people_. It looks like someone cares about them as beings.

It looks like the general has just told the entire _battalion_ that his second in command could hit him, quite possibly as hard as he can, if the situation ever calls for it. No one particularly _wants_ to see that happen, because the majority of them truly like their general. But wouldn’t _that_ be something to see?

Cody tilts his head, sending the Jedi beside him a very dubious look.

“I don’t think you have any idea what you’ve just started, General,” he says.

Obi-Wan shrugs with a satisfied smile, his hands clasped casually behind his back.

“Maybe…” he concedes. “But then again, perhaps this is exactly what I was going for.”

When he looks over at Cody, the commander can’t miss the mischievous glint in those blue eyes.

Cody bites back a sigh.

He likes the direction events have turned as much as the next brother. That look doesn’t bode well for him, though.

General Kenobi is going to bring the Jedi Council down on the 212th, Cody’s sure of it. He’s not entirely sure that the man isn’t aiming for that exact outcome.

*

It takes a little bit of work on Obi-Wan and Cody’s part, but they finally work out a schedule. Four hours every evening (which seems like a lot given that they are often so busy being sent off on missions) are set aside for what is affectionately called “group therapy.” There will be two sessions an evening of two hours each, in which all sixty four squads of the 212th had been split up. Most days, one session will have six squads and the other has seven squads, with the exception of the fifth day when there would be six in each session.

Obi-Wan isn’t particularly proud of just how long it took him and Cody to split the squads into the ten sessions. He hopes Anakin and Ahsoka never catch wind of it, because he’d certainly never hear the end of it.

It’s finally done though, and thus, ready to be implemented.

Each session will follow the same general structure. They all start in one large group and then about halfway through (or whenever they decide because this is for them, after all), the men will split into their squads for the remaining time. Afterwards, they will be released to go about their duties as necessary.

So starting at 1800 hours on the next Primeday, Obi-Wan finds himself and Cody sitting in the designated “therapy room” with seven of their sixty four squads. The room is one of the only big enough spaces that isn’t regularly used for anything else. How they have space that goes unused, he’s not sure, but Obi-Wan’s not going to look a gift tauntaun in the mouth.

A portion of Obi-Wan is incredibly nervous. This is so outside the realm of normal. It’s a little weird and almost completely unheard of. But if Obi-Wan’s being honest with himself (and the troops), perhaps weird and unheard of is exactly what this army needs.

The clock strikes 1805. Obi-Wan thinks to himself that there’s no better time to enact change than the present.

“Alright!” he starts, grabbing the attention of the troopers in the room. There are just about seventy of them, including their sergeants and himself. “I haven’t had the pleasure of speaking to all of you before, so we’ll just go ahead with a… a roll call, so to speak. Now, for these group sessions, nothing needs to be formal. We don’t need any saluting or standing at attention or anything like that. For the next two hours, I’m just Obi-Wan and I don’t even want to hear the word ‘general’. Okay?”

A chorus of “yes, sir”s and agreement answers him immediately. Obi-Wan gives them all a fake glare but he nods and continues on.

“Wonderful,” he says absently as he pulls up the list of squads he’s supposed to have in this session on his wrist holo. “We’ll just go down the line, shall we? Cody? Is ‘A’ Squad here?”

Cody nods from his seat within his own squad. It feels a little weird for him to be over there rather than at Obi-Wan’s side, but he had insisted that Cody join his men for this. He’d given in with only a little bit of a fight.

“All present and accounted for, sir,” he tacks on just to give a verbal response. Obi-Wan would admonish him for the formality if he didn’t know that’s just how Cody speaks.

Still, he just nods to himself and continues down the list of squads. Drakken Squad is here and Obi-Wan is pretty sure the sergeant’s name is Kai. Or, that’s what their almost official records say, anyway. Omega and Charlie squads are both here as well, led by Charlie and Mega respectively, go figure. Swimmer’s Squad led by Sink checks out, followed by Squads DA3 and DD1. Obi-Wan finds it a little odd that after all this time, both of these squads (and their sergeants) have gone unnamed, but he assumes that will change in time. The men are allowed to like using their designations as names if they wish, but preferably, they will find something shorter than calling out a string of numbers. But that isn’t the point of this first session.

This is just to open up the lines of communication.

“Alright,” Obi-Wan starts, cringing inwardly at repeating himself. “This session might not last as long as it’s scheduled to. Whether it does or doesn’t isn’t a big deal. This is for all of you, and it can be as long or as short as you think it needs to be - keeping in mind that after the two hour mark, you’ll need to move somewhere else.” He tacks a smile on at the end of that, hoping he might get at least some reaction out of his sort-of joke.

Thankfully, he gets a few chuckles out of the troopers from Ghost Company and the 2nd Airborne. He decides not to think too hard about whether they were pity laughs or not.

“So,” he begins again, “because of this, if you have something to say, feel free to say it. You have a voice, and neither I nor anyone else on this ship will take it from you. However, I do want to stress that this is an open and accepting environment. What is said in this room will stay in this room unless otherwise specified or if there are extenuating circumstances. I trust all of you are mature and responsible enough to respect that.”

A quiet wave of nods rolls across the room.

“Great. So, I suppose to get started, does anyone have any questions?”

Immediately, a couple hands shoot into the air, followed a little hesitantly by a few others.

Obi-Wan tries to pick out the first one he saw up and gestures for the man to go ahead.

“With all due respect, General-”

“Obi-Wan,” the Jedi corrects gently.

The trooper stumbles his words briefly. “With all due respect, Obi-Wan… we’ve all seen the holovids from Umbara, but… what started all of this?”

Several “yeah”s and hums of agreement sound from the sea of troopers.

Obi-Wan looks out at all of them for a moment.

“What’s your name?” he asks the man.

“Kit, sir.”

“Kit,” he acknowledges. “How much have any of you heard about former Jedi General Krell and what happened back on Umbara?”

“A” Squad and Drakken from Ghost Company surely know everything. They’d been down there and had been drawn into the thick of the issue by the disgraced Jedi himself. Dark looks fall over the expressions of Sink and his troopers, and that makes sense too. Being in Ocean Company, they’d been down on the ground right alongside Ghost.

But Obi-Wan would be lying if he says he has any idea how much of the events had been passed along to the 2nd Airborne Company and Deck Company. Troopers talked, both in and out of their closest contingents. News and Rumors spread through the GAR faster than a stomach bug spreads through the Temple creche. And to be perfectly frank, it’s likely that what some of them had heard are mostly rumors or exaggerations.

But even those troopers who are clearly familiar with Krell don’t seem likely to speak up.

“It’s okay,” he encourages the room. “What have you heard? What do you know?”

“They said he was a monster,” comes a small voice from somewhere in the back. Obi-Wan can’t pinpoint who spoke.

“He had a decent success rate-”

“Yeah, and the highest casualty rate in his systems army!”

“Being assigned to him was a death sentence.”

Obi-Wan just nods along to the things he hears. He blinks for long seconds, focussed less on where the words are coming from and more the particular voices who speak them. He can feel the agitation and frustration sweeping through the squads as more and more men speak up, sharing whatever bit of information or rumor they’d heard.

It only goes on for a moment, but finally, the anger spikes as one more than familiar voice breaks through the others.

“He ordered our brothers to fire on one another under the guise of the others being Umbarans in our armor.”

Obi-Wan’s eyes open at that, drawn immediately off to his right.

The Force broils in angry despair around Cody.

Suddenly the rest of the room is quiet.

“Most of you are correct,” he says after a couple seconds watching his commander. “Krell did and said terrible things. Umbara, while it ended in success thanks to the, admittedly mildly illegal, heroic actions of Captain Rex and the rest of the 501st, was a tragedy. It brought to light, at least to myself, how flawed our treatment of you and your brothers has been. Most are not nearly as bad as Krell, but…”

Obi-Wan sighs. His own irritation is sparking. He breathes in deeply, then releases the air. He imagines the feeling expelling out of him into the Force. He doesn’t want that emotion right now. He’ll examine it later.

“I cannot sit back and watch it happen anymore. That is why, after a little bit of thought, we will be conducting ourselves differently. At least here on the _Negotiator_. And with any luck, if this works out as well as I am hoping it will, these new practices could be adopted throughout the rest of the army.

“Does that answer your question, Kit?” he asks and focuses in on the trooper in question.

His posture seems a little more open now - a little more relaxed. His eyes hold a little more interest and a lot less disdain than they had originally.

“Yes, Sir. I think it does.”

Obi-Wan smiles.

“Who’s next?”

Hands shoot up again and Obi-Wan picks another one on the other side of the room.

“Are you technically allowed to do this?” the man asks. He looks pretty unmarked, his hair the same uniform style most cadets keep theirs in on Kamino. Obi-Wan thinks to himself that this is probably one of their shinies. “I mean, we don’t count as people according to the Republic-”

Obi-Wan doesn’t wait for him to finish.

“What’s your name?”

“I don’t- uh… CT-8129, Sir.”

“Is there something you would like to be called?” Obi-Wan asks, the definition of patience.

“What? Uh, no! That would be-”

“Perfectly alright,” 8129’s sergeant finishes for him. Obi-Wan is pretty sure the sergeant himself doesn’t have a name yet either, but the man smiles at his brother as gently anyway.

“I, uh… No. Not really,” 8129 admits.

“Well, CT-8129, to answer your question, I’m not doing anything against the rules. So in theory, there is nothing saying I’m not allowed to do any of this. As one of the High Jedi Generals, I can see to it that my battalion is run exactly as I see fit. And how I see fit is to ensure that each and every single man under my command is as taken care of in both body and mind as the Republic would expect of any free citizen it claims.”

CT-8129 nods, the motion only a hair stiff.

But Obi-Wan isn’t done.

“And even if there was some regulation saying any of this was against protocol, I would proclaim, loudly and in the middle of the kriffing Senate, that it was utter bantha shit and would proceed to run this battalion exactly as I plan to already.”

Several (more than just several, maybe a few dozen) sets of eyes nearly bug out of his troopers’ heads. They all stare at him in disbelief.

He can’t help but outright laugh. the knowledge that Cody is likely either the least or most appalled at his words only fuels his amusement. Several others join in with him.

Mission accomplished, Obi-Wan thinks to himself. Tension broken. Now just to keep it going.

*

The session carries on much like that for another forty minutes. Obi-Wan answers a lot of questions. Troopers ask and answer each other’s questions. There are moments of laughter and a moment or two that are filled with tension and tight throats. Those don’t go anywhere for very long, but that’s fine. Everyone, Obi-Wan included, still needs to warm up to the idea of being vulnerable in this sort of setting.

At about the one hour mark, Obi-Wan catches their attention again and has them split off into their individual squads. Obi-Wan sits alone for a minute or two and surveys the room, looking for anyone who might be in need of help. Thankfully, all seems well.

Obi-Wan gets up and begins shuffling his way through the room. He pauses here and there to give smiles or offer a few words or more where it’s welcome. When he comes to “A” Squad, he’s stopped and offered a seat.

“A” Squad is one Obi-Wan is well acquainted with. Being Cody’s own personal team, it’s not a surprise. Just by proxy, he works with this group of men quite often. He recognizes each of them sitting there, save for the newest member who’d been pulled in after Umbara. His name is Sole.

He smiles at the group and joins them in their circle. Just for a couple minutes, anyway. He still has other groups to check in with.

They all just talk and banter with one another. Obi-Wan can tell when they settle into a pattern of seriousness and levity, though. They sober a little and no one speaks for a brief few seconds. Then one of the older squad members looks Obi-Wan directly in the eyes. His name is Lucas. It’s one of the more generic names Obi-Wan has ever heard for one of the clones, but it suits the man.

“General - don’t correct me, it’s a habit - can I ask you something a little… personal?” Lucas asks.

“Certainly,” Obi-Wan replies easily, biting back the urge to re-establish the “no titles” rule.

“I thought Jedi aren’t supposed to give in to their emotions? Isn’t it one of your beliefs that emotions cloud your judgement and make it harder to connect with the Force?”

Every eye locks on Obi-Wan. That’s fine. One corner of Obi-Wan’s mouth quirks up in a calculating smile. Oh, he should have expected this from Lucas. He’s a bright one, after all, in more than one way.

“My, someone has done his research,” he teases. It’s more of a compliment. Lucas’ cheeks flush suddenly. “No no, it’s fine. Actually, I’m impressed. But really, that’s a very good question, considering the circumstances. Do any of you know what the Jedi Code says?”

He glances around the ten troopers, most shaking their heads. He’s sure Lucas might have some idea, assuming he hasn’t read it somewhere before. Though, he might not know the actual words

“I’ll recite it for you. Educational purposes and all that.

_“There is no emotion, there is peace._  
_There is no ignorance, there is knowledge._  
_There is no passion, there is serenity._  
_There is no chaos, there is harmony._  
_There is no death, there is the Force.”_

“And that’s what you believe?” another trooper, Ri, asks.

“Well, yes and no.” Obi-Wan pauses, gathering his words. “See, these are the ideals that all Jedi are expected to live by, to the best of their abilities. We’re all imperfect beings, and no one will be able to perfectly master these things. Not even Yoda, I think, and he’s been doing this much longer than the rest of us.

“But I think sometimes, we as an Order fall into the trap of forgetting that we are not perfect. And sometimes, we take these ideals to an extreme. I’m sure there are countless studies out there on the topic, but this can cause a lot of pent up… resentment and emotions that have not been constructively expressed.”

“But,” Lucas interjects, “if those are the beliefs of the Order and you aren’t advocating that or living them, then, what will happen to you?”

“Hopefully? Nothing.” Obi-Wan can see how that answer doesn’t comfort the squad. “I think that there could be ways to live by the Jedi Code, and still express and feel and process one’s emotions. As an example, like what I said in all those versions of the recording I know you’ve all seen, one could feel angry and do something constructive with that anger. Like painting a picture, perhaps. This practice ensures that anger will not be taken out on others, but provides a different outlet for which to give it to the Force and find peace. It would help process the emotion so it doesn’t build up quietly inside until it becomes too much to bear.”

“So… the beliefs of the Jedi are wrong? And you’re choosing not to follow them?” Whisper asks.

Obi-Wan shakes his head, keeping a relaxed smile on his face and an understanding tone in his voice. “No, not at all. I just think that there are multiple ways to follow the Code and be a good Jedi. And I’ll tell you something about beliefs. Belief is not a matter of choice, but of conviction. And that is why I can no longer watch as all of you are treated and looked at as less than sentient, because of the circumstances in which you all have been brought into this world.”

An almost timid voice speaks up in the silence that follows Obi-Wan’s words.

“Why are we important enough for all of this?”

When Obi-Wan’s eyes land on the trooper who’d spoken, he isn’t surprised to find it was a shiny who’d been passing by on his way back to his seat.

“The Jedi believe that every life is precious. That is certainly a belief I have never had to question. And I see absolutely no reason why that shouldn’t extend to you.”

There are a couple long seconds filled only with some pleasantly happy and vaguely confused smiles. Before long, Obi-Wan leaves “A” Squad to their own devices so he can check the rest of the squads. Times flies until he checks his wrist chrono and finds that it’s very nearly 2000 hours.

Obi-Wan returns to the front of the room and calls for the men’s attention. He tells them that he’s proud of them and that he looks forward to next week when they all sit down together again. Then they’re dismissed to their regular schedules for the evening.

Obi-Wan very nearly can’t believe the amount of smiles and relaxed postures he sees as the seventy or so men leave the room. He gets several comments and thanks from a few as they go, follows by big smiles and teasing salutes. He can’t help but return them.

In truth, he has no idea what the repercussions of what he’s doing will be. But in this moment, watching as these men - _his_ men - are armed with the knowledge that they aren’t just soldiers or unthinking copies of one person, but that they are people and deserve to be seen and treated as such, he knows what he’s doing is right.

 _This_ is right.

And no one is going to take it from them.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I would love to know what you thought so leave a comment if you want. I'm also open to prompts if you have any ideas for this series or anything you'd like to see later on. I hope you liked this story and thanks again for reading!
> 
> Edit: Hi! I made a blog for this series! If you're interested, you can [find it here](https://obiwanthetherapistkenobi.tumblr.com/). Come say hi if you want!


End file.
